Christopher M. Lahiff

Christopher (Chris) M. Lahiff advises clients on matters regarding the regulation of pesticides by the US Environmental Protection Agency as well as of food by the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture. Read Chris Lahiff's full bio.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is extending the compliance dates for updating the familiar Nutrition Facts labels, from July 26, 2018 to January 1, 2020, for manufacturers with $10 million or more in annual food sales. Manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales will receive an extra year to comply – until January 1, 2021.

FDA explained that after considering a range of stakeholder comments, there was a need for manufacturers to have additional time to make required label changes. The approximately 18-month extension accomplishes this goal and will provide sufficient time to transition to the new version of the Nutrition Facts label. Finally, FDA said it is committed to ensuring that all manufacturers have guidance to help implement the required label changes by the upcoming compliance dates and the additional time will help FDA achieve that objective.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a draft guidance on the agency’s voluntary recall process and announced the agency’s intention to notify the public faster when a product is recalled. The guidance aims to assist and provide recommendations to industry and FDA staff regarding the use, content and circumstances for issuance of public warnings and public notifications for firm‑initiated or FDA‑requested recalls. In addition, the guidance discusses what information to include in a public warning, as well as the parties responsible for issuing it. Notably, the draft guidance does not specifically address recalls of alcohol beverage products regulated by the Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA) Act or the primary role of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) in seeking and monitoring recalls of such beverages. Comments on the draft guidance are due by March 20, 2018. Continue Reading FDA Releases Draft Guidance on Public Warnings and Notifications of Recalls

On September 29, 2017, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced a proposal to extend the compliance dates for the Nutrition Facts and Supplement Facts label final rule and the Serving Size final rule. For manufacturers with $10 million or more in annual food sales, the date will change from July 26, 2018, to January 1, 2020. Manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales would receive an extra year to comply—until January 1, 2021.

FDA’s proposal addresses only the compliance dates. The FDA is not proposing any other changes to the Nutrition Facts Label and Serving Size final rules. While this rulemaking is being completed, FDA intends to exercise enforcement discretion with respect to the current July 26, 2018, and July 26, 2019, compliance dates. A copy of the public inspection version of the proposed rule can be found here.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently took two actions involving the use of the claim “healthy” on food labels. First, FDA opened a docket to solicit comments on whether, and if so how, to revise the criteria that must be meet in order for a food to bear the claim “healthy.” This reflects changes in public health recommendations for various nutrients since FDA first published the criteria for making “healthy” food labeling claims in 1993. For example, FDA’s view of healthy dietary patterns now focuses on food groups and the type of fat rather than the total amount of fat in a food. Food manufacturers can continue to use the term “healthy” on foods that meet the current regulations while FDA further considers any comments submitted.

Second, FDA issued Guidance announcing that it does not intend to enforce certain regulatory requirements for products that use the term “healthy.” Specifically, FDA says it will not take enforcement action against a food that bears the claim “healthy” but which does not meet the regulatory definition of low fat provided that: (1) The amounts of mono- and polyunsaturated fats in the food are declared on the label; and (2) the sums of mono- and polyunsaturated fats are greater than the total saturated fat content of the food. Similarly, FDA will not take enforcement action with respect to the current regulatory requirement that any food bearing a “healthy” claim contain at least 10 percent of the Daily Value (DV) of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, protein, or fiber if, instead, the food contains at least 10 percent of the DV of potassium or vitamin D. These two changes reflect the most-recent dietary guidance. For fat, the recommendations have shifted from limiting total fat intake to encouraging consumption of mono- and polyunsaturated fats. For mineral and vitamin content, potassium and vitamin D are now nutrients of public health concern, while vitamins A and C are no longer nutrients of public health concern.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued this final rule detailing the criteria for concluding that the use of a substance in human or animal food is “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS). By way of background, if an ingredient is GRAS, food additive petition is not required and FDA does not have to approve the ingredient before it can be used in foods. FDA has been studying the existing process that currently results in a company conducting the GRAS assessment via a panel of experts and then either proceeding to immediately use the ingredient in foods, or submitting a GRAS affirmation petition to FDA before the ingredient is used in a food.

FDA’s new regulation provides the information FDA believes a company should have to make a GRAS determination or conclusion. Manufacturers remain free to conduct their own GRAS evaluations and then proceed to incorporate the substance into food. FDA’s final rule changes what had been a voluntary GRAS affirmation process into a voluntary “notification” process. Under this new process, if a company decides to use the notification process, the company conducts the requisite safety assessment and then prepares a notification submission to the FDA. The contents of the notification submission are detailed in the regulation. Once the voluntary notification had been submitted to FDA, the agency is supposed to respond within 180 days, though that can be extended for an additional 90 days (for a total of 270 days) before the substance can be included in a food, assuming FDA does not question the basis for the notifier’s GRAS conclusion.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a series of public workshops about menu labeling to help the industry comply with requirements to provide calorie and other nutrition information to consumers. The workshops will address the menu labeling final rule, which require certain chain restaurants and similar retail food establishments to give consumers nutrition information on standard menu items. The compliance date for these requirements is May 5, 2017.

These workshops are to continue FDA’s dialogue with the industry about implementation of the menu labeling final rule and provide additional clarity on the requirements. Interested parties will have the opportunity to discuss specific menu labeling questions and concerns directly with FDA subject matter experts through pre-scheduled one-on-one sessions. Continue Reading FDA to Hold Public Workshops Addressing Menu Labeling Final Rule

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released final guidance stating its view that sweeteners derived from sugar cane should not be declared in the statement of ingredients as “evaporated cane juice.” FDA’s view is that the term “evaporated cane juice” is false or misleading because it suggests that the sweetener is fruit or vegetable juice or is made from fruit or vegetable juice, and does not reveal that the ingredient’s basic nature and characterizing properties are those of a sugar.

FDA’s guidance recommends that ingredients currently labeled as “evaporated cane juice” be relabeled to use the term “sugar,” optionally accompanied by a truthful, non-misleading descriptor to distinguish the ingredient from other cane-based sweeteners. Such a descriptor could be a coined term, and can be used to distinguish the ingredient from white sugar and other sugars by describing characteristics such as source, color, flavor or crystal size. FDA would expect such a descriptor to appear before the common or usual ingredient name “sugar.”

FDA has published as part of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) a final rule concerning mitigation strategies to protect food against intentional adulteration. The rule will require domestic and foreign food facilities that are required to register as food facilities under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) to address hazards that may be introduced with the intention to cause wide scale public health harm. More specifically, under this regulation, both domestic and foreign food facilities are required to complete and maintain a written food defense plan that assesses their potential vulnerabilities to deliberate contamination where the intent is to cause wide-scale public health harm. Facilities will now have to identify and implement mitigation strategies to address these vulnerabilities, establish food defense monitoring procedures and corrective actions, verify that the system is working, ensure that personnel assigned to the vulnerable areas receive appropriate training and maintain certain records.

Under a law signed late last year, FDA’s enforcement of its menu labeling final rule cannot begin until one year after FDA published this notice of availability. As a result, enforcement of the final Menu Labeling regulations will start on May 5, 2017.

This week, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) formally announced that the agency will delay enforcement of its final rule entitled “Food Labeling; Nutrition Labeling of Standard Menu Items in Restaurants and Similar Retail Food Establishments.” The statement marked the second time the agency extended the compliance deadline. Enforcement of the menu labeling rule was scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2016. The date that the FDA will begin enforcing menu labeling provisions is unknown at this time. The delay is the result of a provision in a federal appropriations law that prohibits the FDA from using funds to implement, administer, or enforce the menu labeling rule until one year after the agency issues its final, Level 1 guidance on nutrition labeling of standard menu items in restaurants and similar retail food establishments. FDA has yet to issue that final guidance.